Info L'Équipe - Le triple champion du monde Peter Sagan ne prolongera pas son contrat chez Bora-Hansgrohe et selon nos informations, pourrait rebondir au sein de la formation Deceuninck-Quick Step chez Patrick Lefévère.
L’Equipe reports that Sagan didn’t renew his contract with Bora and might leave for Deceuninck (who also ride on Specialized).
Recently Bora’s boss Ralph Denk indeed made comments that Sagan might need a new team soon, that he’s “entering the autumn of his career”and he, Denk, thinks it’s better to invest in youth. Sagan replied to this that finding a new team wouldn’t be a problem. Some other team bosses, like Jonathan Vaughters, said Denk shouldn’t forget that he wouldn’t have a world tour team in the first place without Sagan — he was the main allure for the sponsors.
The rivalry between Bora and DQS in the recent years provided some quality high school drama. Not only were they fighting on the road (these are the teams with the highest number of victories) but also team bosses were making comments about each other in the press constantly. In that “Band of Brothers”documentary about Sagan (but actually sneakily about Bora) Denk was saying something along the lines of “we’re not just some pack of animals — we care about all people in our team, everyone is important” as the images of DQS riders appeared in screen (even though the name of the team wasn’t mentioned). These comments were interesting in light of what Sam Bennett was saying in his interviews, that he feels “replacable” in the team. Then he left for DQS, won a TdF green jersey with them immidiately and doesn’t hold back in his praise for the team.
Patrick Lefevere recently was saying that Denk wanted to sign Evenepoel so much he offered to buy out the entire team. Denk denied it and alleged that Lefevere just wants to put a pressure on his sponsors (DQS as a team still needs to secure sponsors going forward).
And now these rumours of Sagan going to DQS, who clearly don’t care about “autumn of a career” as much — they just got Cavendish on board, and he seems to be doing metally much better than several years before.
But, imo, if Sagan is really coming to, it means one of their big stars is leaving. And there were rumours earlier this year that AG2R want to sign Alaphilippe. Idk, I can’t really imagine both Alaphilippe and Sagan in one team, so in order for one to come, the other has to leave. Also I wonder if Sagan would be comfortable enough in DQS. For years he’s been the main star in Bora and raced how he wanted, it’s after team’s attention started to turn to other riders (like Ackermann) that their relationship started to sour. And in DQS you, yes, have to be ready to win at all times, but also have to work for others and obey the orders. It works very well for some (Kittel, Cavendish) but doesn’t work for others (De Gendt).
So it’s interesting where all of this is going.
and then he left to the retirement home team anyways RIP to this period of everyone thinking it was gonna happen
